Review: The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade (The Ghost and the Goth #1)

Title: The Ghost and the Goth

Author: Stacey Kade
Publication date: May 10th 2011
Publisher: Hyperion
Age group: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Cover rating: 5/5
Content rating: 4.5/5
Buy: Amazon / The Book Depository

Description via Goodreads:

Alona Dare–Senior in high school, co-captain of the cheerleading squad, Homecoming Queen three years in a row, voted most likely to marry a movie star… and newly dead. 

I’m the girl you hated in high school. Is it my fault I was born with it all-good looks, silky blond hair, a hot bod, and a keen sense of what everyone else should not be wearing? But my life isn’t perfect, especially since I died. Run over by a bus of band geeks—is there anything more humiliating? As it turns out, yes—watching your boyfriend and friends move on with life, only days after your funeral. And you wouldn’t believe what they’re saying about me now that they think I can’t hear them. To top it off, I’m starting to disappear, flickering in and out of existence. I don’t know where I go when I’m gone, but it’s not good. Where is that freaking white light already?

Will Killian–Senior in high school, outcast, dubbed “Will Kill” by the popular crowd for the unearthly aura around him, voted most likely to rob a bank…and a ghost-talker. 

I can see, hear, and touch the dead. Unfortunately, they can also see, hear and touch me. Yeah, because surviving high school isn’t hard enough already. I’ve done my best to hide my “gift.” After all, my dad, who shared my ability, killed himself because of it when I was fifteen. But lately, pretending to be normal has gotten a lot harder. A new ghost—an anonymous, seething cloud of negative energy with the capacity to throw me around—is pursuing me with a vengeance. My mom, who knows nothing about what I can do, is worrying about the increase in odd incidents, my shrink is tossing around terms like “temporary confinement for psychiatric evaluation,” and my principal, who thinks I’m a disruption and a faker, is searching for every way possible to get rid of me. How many weeks until graduation?

My thoughts:
Wow, this was just amazing. I had so much fun reading it and I'm a little disappointed that it was less than 300 pages. I wanted it to go on forever! It really was absolutely fantastic and I'm mad at myself for not buying the whole series at once. I can't wait to get my hands on book two and to spend more time with these brilliant and unique characters. I am definitely a fan of Stacey Kade's writing and will be jumping to read anything she writes in the future. I've found a new series to love and I also love that the whole trilogy is already out so I won't be waiting around for ages for them. That would have been hard!

The Ghost: Alona is such a fantastic character! While alive, Alona seemed like your typical popular girl who could get whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted it. As a ghost, she's still basically the same person but we learn that there is a lot more to her. It was interesting seeing how Alona had her secrets all along and how difficult it was for her to keep up the image of being perfect. It's really easy to relate to Alona and to empathize with her. She's a really really fun character and provides us with so many laughs throughout the book. She's very clever and insightful, and faces every situation with determination.

And the Goth: Will is also fantastic and definitely one of my favourite male protagonists of all time. Will can see and hear ghosts. As well as being creepy, it's also just plain annoying. Imagine hearing dozens of ghosts talking to you, yelling at you and demanding things from you all day, every day. Will does a good job at explaining to us what it's like being him and you can just sense his frustration throughout the whole novel. He's such a sweet guy and really shows that can't really know a person just by seeing how they dress or by listening to rumours about them!

There's a lot packed into such a little book and it's very impressive. It's definitely a book that you just want to read in one sitting. The whole time I was so eager and excited to see where things would go. You will not find any insta-love in the pages of this book. The romance develops at a slow rate which was really nice to see. Clearly, I thought this book was amazing and will be reading the sequels very soon. I recommend this to everybody!